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Phys. Rev. D 66, 044019 (2002) [13 pages]

Gravity wave analogues of black holes

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Ralf Schützhold* and William G. Unruh
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1

Received 22 May 2002; published 28 August 2002

It is demonstrated that gravity waves of a flowing fluid in a shallow basin can be used to simulate phenomena around black holes in the laboratory. Since the speed of the gravity waves as well as their high-wave-number dispersion (subluminal vs superluminal) can be adjusted easily by varying the height of the fluid (and its surface tension) this scenario has certain advantages over the sonic and dielectric black hole analogs, for example, although its use in testing quantum effects is dubious. It can be used to investigate the various classical instabilities associated with black (and white) holes experimentally, including positive and negative norm mode mixing at horizons.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.66.044019
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.66.044019
PACS:
04.70.-s, 04.80.-y, 47.90.+a, 92.60.Dj

*Electronic address: schuetz@physics.ubc.ca

Electronic address: unruh@physics.ubc.ca